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Originally filmed in 1999 on a budget of $7 million as a made-for-TV pilot, new scenes were filmed one and a half year later on a $7 million budget given by the French film studio Studio Canal to wrap up the open ending which had been left unresolved in the original version so that a TV series could follow. »more
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Mulholland Drive is an actual road that twists its way through the Hollywood Hills outside of Los Angeles. It also appeared in Lynch's film "Lost Highway" as the road Mr Eddy takes Pete Dayton for a drive on.
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Betty claims to be from Deep River, Ontario. This is the name of the apartment building in Blue Velvet (1986), another David Lynch film.
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The limo that transports Rita/Camilla has the license plate 2GAT123. The same California license plate also appears in Beverly Hills Cop II (1987), L.A. Story (1991), Traffic (2000), Pay It Forward (2000), Crazy/Beautiful (2001) and National Security (2003). »more
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Lynch cast TV soap actresses for many of the female roles. By coincidence, Naomi Watts (Diane/Betty), Melissa George (Camilla Rhodes), and Elizabeth Lackey (Carol) were all in the Australian series "Home and Away" (1988). Marcus Graham (Vincent Darby) is the fourth Australian actor in this movie.
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Laura Elena Harring is a former Miss USA and star of Aaron Spelling's ill-fated daytime soap-opera Sunset Beach.
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David Lynch cast Naomi Watts and Laura Elena Harring by scrutinizing head-shot photographs and conducting interviews. The cast were never reading any script for their roles.
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On the way to audition for her part, Laura Harring was so excited that she caused a minor car accident. Only then at the audition at David Lynch's house she was told to have a car accident in the opening scene.
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Naomi Watts has always regretted telling a journalist she had considered suicide before she had her big break - as she insists the comment was taken too literally. The Mulholland Dr. star, 36, admits she was on the brink of dangerous depression during hard times as a struggling actress in Los Angeles, but was shocked when she realized the press had latched onto her comment. She previously told a reporter, "I remember driving along Mulholland Drive, thinking, 'Maybe I'll just go over the cliff because I can't take it anymore.'" However, Watts explains, "That wasn't literal. For the record, I am not a suicidal person. But I understand depression and I've lived it and I felt really badly when I read that and suddenly it's everywhere, 'Naomi Contemplating Suicide'.
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Michael J. Anderson, the dancing dwarf from Twin Peaks, has a small but odd role as Mr. Roque, a film studio executive. In order to make the diminutive actor appear normal-sized, Lynch outfitted him with a complete prosthetic body. Anderson had to stand on the seat of a wooden wheelchair while he was being buttressed by foam legs, silicone arm extensions and an outsize suit to transform him from dwarf to menacing paraplegic.
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Adam Kesher smashing the producers' car windshield in with a golf club is a reference to Jack Nicholson who once was known to have smashed someone's windshield with one of his golf clubs at a road rage incident in 1994. Nicholson's nickname is "Mulholland Man" due to the fact that he starred in "Chinatown", a movie that depicts a character based on William Mulholland, whom the actual Mulholland Drive was named after.
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The red pipe seen in the background at Pink's Hot Dogs is an homage to the film "Mon Oncle" by Jacques Tati's. »movie reference
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The film is dedicated to Jennifer Syme, a young actress whose story is startlingly similar to that of the character of Betty - but who in fact died after the bulk of the film was completed.
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When Rita and Betty go to the Sierra Bonita apartment complex, the name next to #17 is L. J. DeRosa - a member of the art department on the film, Laura J. DeRosa. There are other names on the board that match with actual film crew members. »more
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In addition, several of the crew make cameo appearances in the movie:
- Cori Glazer, the script supervisor, is playing the Blue-haired lady.
- Charlie Croughwell, the stunt coordinator, is playing the Vacuum man.
- Angelo Badalamenti, the soundtrack composer, appears as the movie exec Luigi Castigliane. -
Lafayette Montgomery, who plays the Cowboy in the first part, is not an actor but a film producer and good friend of David Lynch. He co-produced Lynch's "Wild at Heart" (1990) and "Twin Peaks" (1990-91).
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The Cowboy at the dinner party is played by a different, uncredited actor. » see 'Making Of' image galery
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Kate Forster, who plays the "ever-lovely" Martha Johnson in the audition scene, is the daughter of Robert Forster, one of the detectives from the crash side.
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Does David Lynch like to play games: In 1997 Justin Theroux (Adam) had a very small part in a movie called "Romy and Michele's High School Reunion". In it he was a mysterious stranger, dressed all in black and wearing a cowboy outfit. In the credits he's listed as 'The Cowboy'. »pics
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Naomi Watts played the character Grace Rhodes in Children of the Corn IV (1996).
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Curiosities in the closing credits: Wayne Grace's character Bob Brooker is credited as Bob Booker. Chad Everett’s character is called Woody Katz within the film, but he is listed as Jimmy Katz.
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According to the credits the bum behind the wall is played by a woman, Bonnie Aarons.
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The closing credits give special thanks to Barbara Orbison (wife of Roy Orbison) and add Babbo, Inc. as a production company.
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The movie features one of the final film appearances by MGM musical legend Ann Miller (as Coco).
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Lynch said the Ryan Board conference is somewhat based on his own life. He said everyone has been in the situation that something you've worked on hard and love is threatened and he went on about when you don't have final cut approval you are open to people telling you what to do and how it can become a nightmarish experience. (Book: Lynch On Lynch)
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Without reference in the screenplay, the surrealistic Silencio sequence was shot in late 1999 as a finale to the original TV-Pilot. The idea around Club Silencio is a results of a deal between Disney's Touchstone Television and David Lynch. The company contributed $2.5 million more to the Pilot project (to a total budget of $7 million) with the proviso – which Lynch grudgingly accepted – that he shoot extra footage to be used as a "Closed ending." Disney's Buena Vista International intended to recoup the company's money by releasing the longer version as a film in Europe.
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Latina singer Rebekah Del Rio plays herself at a nightclub, "lip-synching" an a cappella version of "Llorando", Roy Orbison's song "Crying" in Spanish translation (much as Dean Stockwell lip-synchs Orbison's "In Dreams" in Lynch's earlier film Blue Velvet, except that Del Rio actually sings the song.)
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The diner name "Winkie's" is a reference to "The Wizard of Oz" wherein the Winkies were the little people living in the west who were dressed all in yellow, enslaved by the Wicked Witch of the West, and later freed by Dorothy. »The Wizard of Oz references
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Reportedly, the original Winkie's diner (1016 W. El Segundo Blvd.) featured the same brown coffee cup and plates that were used in the movie.
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The Denny's restaurant on the corner of Cower and Sunset was an inspiration for Winkie's and the restaurant used to be called 'The Copper Penny'. To Lynch the bum outside was a vibe of the weirdness he felt when being in a specific booth at this restaurant and gave him sort of a strange feeling and that others felt something too. (Book: Lynch On Lynch)
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The set of reels that was distributed to the movie theaters included a note from David Lynch himself giving special instructions to the projectionists. Specifically, he didn't want the movie to be centered vertically on the screen but rather to "allow more overhead" as the term in projectionist's slang, that is to let the top part of the frame be more visible than the bottom part. »The note
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For the DVD release Lynch added digital blurring to Laura Harring's nude scene where Rita unrobes and gets into bed with the Betty character. Lynch stated in the chatroom on dl.com: "We did that blurring for the DVD on purpose as we knew that pictures of Laura would be everywhere if we didn't. And later he added, "First - if the shot is timed correctly you should not be able to tell one bit if Laura's pubic hair has been blurred - this probably means some viewers are experimenting to see Laura's pubic hair and more... This is why the picture was blurred - I promised Laura that I would try to protect her as much as possible and told her she would remain a beautiful silhouette against the warm light coming in through the curtains."
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The DVD of the movie (Region 1) does not feature chapters; attempting to "skip" to the next scene or chapter takes you to the "DVD" logo animation at the very end of the movie after all the credits and ratings and so forth. Director David Lynch requested this himself, as he has done on previous releases, such as The Straight Story. By allowing the film to be on one chapter, Lynch believes people will be more inclined to view the feature in one sitting, as intended. Robert Zemeckis also used this idea on his laserdisc release of Forrest Gump.
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There's an Easter Egg on Region 3 Korean Disc: While the main menu is a sort audio segment (repeated) the special features menu and other attached to it have a limited number of full songs on them. All can be accessed by the 'Cast and Crew' menu (some of the music is repeated on other screens as well). The arrows (>) indicates selecting the next page:
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Deep River apartments in "Blue Velvet" |
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Justin Theroux as "The Cowboy" |
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Thread: MD Trivia Roundup - (shmoo)
Links:
MD Trivia on IMDb
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